The Pillow

This was not my first pillow!

I have made pillows with piping before, and I have installed many zippers in my time.
I have no idea why all of this went so wrong. It seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong!

I finally finished Winter Watch, after what seemed like forever filling in all that gray and then making all the French knot snowflakes!

I decided to turn it into a pillow. I remembered that I had a piece of gray velveteen in the attic that I thought would be perfect for the backing. As it turned out, it wasn't the best match, but it was ok. I wanted to stay away from the Christmas reds, so it would be displayable in January-March.

Well, then my troubles began. My trusty 50+ year old Kenmore was acting up! The tension was all messed up, and the clutch for some reason wouldn't engage. How does this happen when the last time I used it, it was perfectly fine?

Well, after an entire afternoon of fiddling with it, I got it so it would work, not perfectly, but enough to get me through hopefully.

I had a lot of trouble with it. First I made the piping out of the same material, Then I basted it to the canvas, and sewed it on. That went ok. Next step was to put the invisible zipper in. The side of the zipper that went onto the canvas went in ok, but when I tried to sew the other half to the velveteen backing I had a lot of trouble.

 No matter what I did, I couldn't get that pillow to line up! It seemed like the backing had skewed itself, so it was crooked. I don't know how this happened because I basted everything, but it slid around somehow!

After hours of trying to straighten it out, I gave up. This is what it looks like:

I was going to make a pillow liner for it but I didn't, thinking that maybe someday I would go back and revisit it. For now though, I am so frustrated, I can't even look at it!

I guess it is ok if no one turns it over, but people always do, don't they?

I would love to fix this, but I really don't know how I can make it any better. I can feel my blood pressure going up just thinking about this! What a disappointment! Maybe I shouldn't have attempted the zipper with the piping on such a thick fabric as the velveteen. Certainly not my best work! Oh well! Moving on . . .

I knitted a pair of socks for me! This was actually my first finish for the year.

I knitted these using Kroy sock yarn, in Brown Marl. I liked the colors. They seem so cozy.

For a change of pace, I am now stitching Love Heart from Bothy Threads. I love this design. It is so fun and quirky!

This is what I have so far:

I did swop out the aida for 28 ct linen, which I much prefer. In hind sight however, I wish I had chosen 32 count linen instead of the 28ct. I didn't realize how big this design was. I would like to frame this one, but my wall space is somewhat limited

That's all I have for now. I am looking forward to spring as I am sure all of your are. I suspect that winter is not quite done with us though! March is always a tricky one!

2015

What a blur!

I had always heard that time passes quicker when you get older, but this year went by at a dizzying speed!
I felt that if I turned my head, I would get vertigo!

I did keep working steadily on my projects though. Warning! This is going to be a long post to catch up on 6 months!

I finished Sarah Elizabeth Brooke.

I love the verse on this one. A girl after my own heart!

No glory I covet no riches I want

Ambition is nothing to me

The one thing I beg of good Heaven to grant

Is a mind independent and free

She is still not framed of course.


Next I decided to work on a few Christmas presents. I had planned to knit the Winter Wonderland socks for Martha, my mother-in-law.

This one took a lot of planning. I had to find just the right color yarn, and send away for the miyuki beads. The pattern called for a cream color, but I didn't think the mohair "snow" would show up well enough against it. I chose a gray-blue cashmere blend yarn. Unfortunately the "snow" didn't show up as well as I had hoped on this color either.

This is a very interesting pattern that presented quite a few challenges. All the beads all had to be counted out and placed on the yarn (backwards in order of use) before the knitting could start. I had to string 1144 silver-lined clear beads, and 480 green-lined crystal beads! I was in fear the whole time that I hadn't counted right, or I had placed the wrong color bead in the wrong place!

The next challenge was the provisional cast on. I had never done this before. The top part of the sock, with the crystal snowflakes, is knitted sideways in stocking knit stitch.

The piece is then sewn together. Then the stitches are picked up to complete the body of the sock.

The mohair is knitted along with the blue yarn to create the snow drifts. Again, I was a little disappointed that it didn't show up better.

So far, so good. Now all I needed to do was knit my way down the foot.

It went well. The only thing was, now I had to do it all over again for the other foot!

In the end, thankfully, they turned out very well.

Now, it they only fit!


Next, I knitted a simple pair of socks for Keith using an Opal self-striping yarn.

He liked these. He wore them on Christmas day.

Then, I knitted him another pair in brown merino wool.

Hard to tell from the photo, but this was gorgeous wool, very luxurious to work!

Then, I knitted this tan pair for Martha.

After all the knitting, I decided to finish A Crossed Wing Christmas.
I had been working on this one off and on for a long time, and it felt good to have it done.

It is hard to tell from the photo, but there are many pearlescent beads sewn all over the snow.
This also has yet to be framed.

Next, it was time to stitch some Christmas ornaments. I picked Merry Christmas by Samplers Not Forgotten, from the 2015 JCS Ornament issue.

I am still working on the finishing.

This is the backing fabric I chose.

This will be finished up tomorrow.

Also, I stitched the cat from Prairie Schooler's Christmas Past.

This will be a quick finish too.

After that, I stitched two of the Old World Santas from Prairie Schooler.

I love these old Prairie Schooler designs. I may hold off finishing these two because I would like to stitch the whole collection, and have a similar backing on them.

After that, I made myself some socks! I used Opal Yarn's Neon yarn to make these.

During the last few days, I have been plugging away on Winter Watch. This just might be the year I finish it, although I can't think of many things more boring than filling in a large background with gray stitches!

This year has had losses for us. About a month ago, we lost our little Hermie to cancer.
He came to us right around this time back in 2008. You do not pick a cat. The cat picks you!

Hermie

 We hadn't gotten over that, when a week later, our McGruff was diagnosed with a very serious case of heart failure. We are taking care of him as best we can. Hermie and McGruff were the youngest cats. My others are older, so I worry about what is to come of course.

Well. lets hope next year will be full of good things for all of us!

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post, you deserve a medal! That's what happens when you try to put 6 months into one post!

My camera is back!

Yay! I finally got my camera back from Nikon, and I can post again!

I have been working almost exclusively on The Knox Family sampler. It is a very slow painstaking process on this one, and it seems like I will never be finished.

The beginning rows of alphabet all use the same two colors, and it does get a bit monotonous.

Some of the dividers between the alphabets are interesting. It is hard to see the detail, but here is a slice.

The entire inner border is done in a straight stitch in dark gold.
The first dividing band is done in dark gold cross stitch.
The second band is done in a back stitch using medium green.
The third dividing band is done in a zig-zag fashion with alternating straight stitches of green on the upswing, and dark gold on the down swing.
The fourth dividing band is done in a Long Legged Cross Stitch.
The fifth dividing band is done in Old Fashioned Cross Stitch.

Finally I got to the point where I can work with pink!
Next come the large illuminated letters. Each one takes quite a while to complete.

First the letter is stitched, then the filigree work is completed.

This is where it stands so far.

 

(Donna, I totally agree with you about the colors. That is why I was drawn to this sampler was for the lovely muted shades. The linen colors goes perfectly with them).

I also did a little bit of work on Winter Watchers.
I finished the male cardinal.

I also finished the branch, and completed a few rows with the background gray, Here is how it looks now.

I will only be working on this once in a while, in between projects. I have to fill in all the gray, then do all the little white French knot snowflakes. That will take some time. I was thinking of making it into a pillow when it is finished.

Last but not least is my April TUSAL, just a few days late.

Although I get quite frustrated with the slow progress of the Knox sampler, I feel like it will be worth the trouble when it is finished, atleast I hope so!

I think my next project though will be an easy one!

Long overdue post . . .

It has been over a month since I posted. I wish I could say this was because I was off in some exotic locale, but unfortunately it has been something much more mundane. I have had a lot of camera troubles. First my Nikon broke, then the card reader I was using for my little camera broke.
Frustrating!

I have some updates on the Knox Family Sampler. These photos were taken three weeks ago, so I am a bit father along now. I will post another photo just as soon as I can,

This shows the first row of letters and initials. It is stitched one over one.

Also, during this time I worked on a old WIP needlepoint called  Winter Watch.

This photo shows the female cardinal completed.

Sorry, for some reason I don't seem to be able to rotate it.

Since this was taken, I have finished the male cardinal as well
 Photos to follow.

I decided to bite the bullet and send the camera back to Nikon to be fixed, so hopefully I will have more to show soon.